Help to revocer lost files.....

  • Thread starter Thread starter leelaa
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leelaa

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Desperately need some help please. I have Windows XP Home Edition. The system

was running very slowly and kept losing internet connection. I thought it may

have some bugs. I purchased Norton which found and fixed several issues.

Still kept losing connection and would not let me do a system restore.

Then the mouse stopped working altogether. I assumed the system had crashed.

On boot up I pressed F10 and followed the instructions to recover the system.

However it has now reverted back to the day I got it and has lost all

Photos, Music, Homework and other files.

Is there any way I can restore these files????



Regards

Lee
 
Very unlikely. The recovery process overwrote existing files on the drive.

depending on where your original data existed it now has new data over

the top of it. There are tools that you can run that will locate "Orphaned:"

files and 'possibly' recover them. But I doubt you'd find and get very few

of them back.



Mark it down as a learning experience - backup your data and do it on a

regular schedule. Or you can spend ~$50.00 for Carbonite or other online

backup services and basically set it and forget it.



"leelaa" wrote in message

news:CB1B2497-F09B-415A-A994-28B0752B89A7@microsoft.com...

> Desperately need some help please. I have Windows XP Home Edition. The

> system

> was running very slowly and kept losing internet connection. I thought it

> may

> have some bugs. I purchased Norton which found and fixed several issues.

> Still kept losing connection and would not let me do a system restore.

> Then the mouse stopped working altogether. I assumed the system had

> crashed.

> On boot up I pressed F10 and followed the instructions to recover the

> system.

> However it has now reverted back to the day I got it and has lost all

> Photos, Music, Homework and other files.

> Is there any way I can restore these files????

>

> Regards

> Lee
 
Generally you can but it will cost you an arm and a leg to do so. There are

professionals who does exactly that for a living. However, try this link:



http://www.recovermyfiles.com/



Please note that the normal caveats apply in all cases and if the data is

very important to you then you should consult a specialist who can do it for

you for a fee.



hth



"leelaa" wrote in message

news:CB1B2497-F09B-415A-A994-28B0752B89A7@microsoft.com...

> Desperately need some help please. I have Windows XP Home Edition. The

> system

> was running very slowly and kept losing internet connection. I thought it

> may

> have some bugs. I purchased Norton which found and fixed several issues.

> Still kept losing connection and would not let me do a system restore.

> Then the mouse stopped working altogether. I assumed the system had

> crashed.

> On boot up I pressed F10 and followed the instructions to recover the

> system.

> However it has now reverted back to the day I got it and has lost all

> Photos, Music, Homework and other files.

> Is there any way I can restore these files????

>

> Regards

> Lee
 
"R. McCarty" wrote in message

news:u36dpLxrKHA.728@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...



>. Or you can spend ~$50.00 for Carbonite or other online

> backup services and basically set it and forget it.

>



Microsoft will do it for you for free:







Not automatic backup but backup it is!!!!



hth
 
I use Skydrive and it is a possible way to backup. However it requires

the PC user to do it manually and unfortunately in our "Short Attention

Span", ear buds inserted society I find most people aren't disciplined

enough to do that. Plus with asymmetrical broadband it can take a long

time to upload data to Skydrive. Also Skydrive has a 50-Megabyte

single file size limitation. Many things like Outlook .pst and other data

modules can easily exceed that size cap.



I suspect the original poster may have had to dismiss at least 1 or 2

explicit warnings that recovery would result in lost data. If that was read

and understood the recovery might have been avoided. Click throughs

on warnings/ramifications are always dangerous.



"20100216" wrote in message

news:uqijbPxrKHA.6004@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>

> "R. McCarty" wrote in message

> news:u36dpLxrKHA.728@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>

>>. Or you can spend ~$50.00 for Carbonite or other online

>> backup services and basically set it and forget it.

>>

>

> Microsoft will do it for you for free:

>

>

>

> Not automatic backup but backup it is!!!!

>

> hth

>

>

>

>
 
leelaa wrote:

> Desperately need some help please. I have Windows XP Home Edition.

> The system was running very slowly and kept losing internet

> connection. I thought it may have some bugs. I purchased Norton

> which found and fixed several issues. Still kept losing connection

> and would not let me do a system restore.

> Then the mouse stopped working altogether. I assumed the system had

> crashed. On boot up I pressed F10 and followed the instructions to

> recover the system. However it has now reverted back to the day I

> got it and has lost all Photos, Music, Homework and other files.

> Is there any way I can restore these files????



Probably not. You overwrote the majority of the drive - where the data you

want would be - by doing the oem-recovery.



You can look with something like "Recuva" or "Undelete" - but the odds are

stacked against you. Even with the best tools available - parts of the data

will be corrupted because the spots they used to occupy were over-written by

other things by now.



It's a tough lesson - but one that proves the point of backups quite well.

I feel for you in your loss of all the data you found valuable - but if it

really was valuable - you should have had backups of it. It's not like

there is any excuse not to have backups of your data in today's world. A CD

burned here, a DVD burned there a USB thumb drive or USB hard disk drive...

Some backup tapes, floppy diskettes, ZIP disks, BluRay, online services,

email accounts, etc and so on. The number of ways you could have prevented

the loss of this data is pretty long and all fairly inexpensive, readily

available and easy to use.



My suggestion - beyond possibly trying to recover some of it with the two

tools I have mentioned - is to purchase a Seagate Replica and use it to

backup your entire system from now on. You could also just get a large USB

hard disk drive (1TB+ drives - 1000GB+ - can be had for $80-$150 U.S. pretty

readily) and just keep a copy (keyword there - COPY - not the ONLY one, but

a COPY) of your important files there. Include your pictures, music,

emails, product keys/serial numbers, downloaded installation files,

contacts, documents, spreadsheets, databases, Internet Favorites/Bookmarks,

etc.



--

Shenan Stanley

MS-MVP

--

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
 
Thanks for that, I did see messages when recovering, but I remember seeing a

message that said programmes added would not be lost. But its all gone.



Hey Ho



"20100216" wrote:



> Generally you can but it will cost you an arm and a leg to do so. There are

> professionals who does exactly that for a living. However, try this link:

>

> http://www.recovermyfiles.com/

>

> Please note that the normal caveats apply in all cases and if the data is

> very important to you then you should consult a specialist who can do it for

> you for a fee.

>

> hth

>

> "leelaa" wrote in message

> news:CB1B2497-F09B-415A-A994-28B0752B89A7@microsoft.com...

> > Desperately need some help please. I have Windows XP Home Edition. The

> > system

> > was running very slowly and kept losing internet connection. I thought it

> > may

> > have some bugs. I purchased Norton which found and fixed several issues.

> > Still kept losing connection and would not let me do a system restore.

> > Then the mouse stopped working altogether. I assumed the system had

> > crashed.

> > On boot up I pressed F10 and followed the instructions to recover the

> > system.

> > However it has now reverted back to the day I got it and has lost all

> > Photos, Music, Homework and other files.

> > Is there any way I can restore these files????

> >

> > Regards

> > Lee

>

>

> .

>
 
leelaa wrote:

> Desperately need some help please. I have Windows XP Home Edition.

> The system was running very slowly and kept losing internet

> connection. I thought it may have some bugs. I purchased Norton which

> found and fixed several issues. Still kept losing connection and

> would not let me do a system restore.

> Then the mouse stopped working altogether. I assumed the system had

> crashed. On boot up I pressed F10 and followed the instructions to

> recover the system. However it has now reverted back to the day I got

> it and has lost all Photos, Music, Homework and other files.

> Is there any way I can restore these files????



How valuable is this data to you? Some places charge thousands of

dollars to attempt to recover data from a wiped hard drive.



Now that you have restored your PC to its original condition, how is it

currently running? Are you able to keep your Internet connection?
 
leelaa wrote:

> Desperately need some help please. I have Windows XP Home Edition. The system

> was running very slowly and kept losing internet connection. I thought it may

> have some bugs. I purchased Norton which found and fixed several issues.

> Still kept losing connection and would not let me do a system restore.

> Then the mouse stopped working altogether. I assumed the system had crashed.

> On boot up I pressed F10 and followed the instructions to recover the system.

> However it has now reverted back to the day I got it and has lost all

> Photos, Music, Homework and other files.

> Is there any way I can restore these files????

>

> Regards

> Lee







Your data are now gone...

once over-written...that's it.



If you sent the drive off to a lab...

there is a tiny possibility some of it could be recovered

but it would be very expensive.



Now you have learned why it's essential to back up your data
 
In news:Ogisn4xrKHA.732@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl,

Shenan Stanley typed:

> leelaa wrote:

>> Desperately need some help please. I have Windows XP Home Edition.

>> The system was running very slowly and kept losing internet

>> connection. I thought it may have some bugs. I purchased Norton

>> which found and fixed several issues. Still kept losing connection

>> and would not let me do a system restore.

>> Then the mouse stopped working altogether. I assumed the system had

>> crashed. On boot up I pressed F10 and followed the instructions to

>> recover the system. However it has now reverted back to the day I

>> got it and has lost all Photos, Music, Homework and other files.

>> Is there any way I can restore these files????

>

> Probably not. You overwrote the majority of the drive - where the

> data you want would be - by doing the oem-recovery.



I've seen that mentioned twise now: It's not necessarily true, especially on

a large hard drive and especially since the newly formatted drive contains a

LOT less data than it did previously because no data is on the drive.

Chances of recovering many of the lost files with undeleter programs are

rather good. It's pretty unlikely anything near 100% could be recovered,

simply because anything that gets written to the drive might overwrite yet

more data. It's a bit of a crapshoot but a good undeleter might recover the

majority of them. It's a lot of monkeywork sometimes but I've recovered

something close to 80% of the files on the last machine I did this to. Most

were .jpg images so they were rather easy to locate. Recovered files will

not overwrite others since it's only a flag (character change) in the title

and tables but if the undeleter creates a lot of temp files that could

overwrite some of them. That's one of the reasons I say it's a crapshoot.



HTH,



Twayne







>

> You can look with something like "Recuva" or "Undelete" - but the

> odds are stacked against you. Even with the best tools available -

> parts of the data will be corrupted because the spots they used to

> occupy were over-written by other things by now.

>

> It's a tough lesson - but one that proves the point of backups quite

> well. I feel for you in your loss of all the data you found valuable

> - but if it really was valuable - you should have had backups of it. It's

> not like there is any excuse not to have backups of your data in

> today's world. A CD burned here, a DVD burned there a USB thumb

> drive or USB hard disk drive... Some backup tapes, floppy diskettes,

> ZIP disks, BluRay, online services, email accounts, etc and so on. The

> number of ways you could have prevented the loss of this data is

> pretty long and all fairly inexpensive, readily available and easy to

> use.

> My suggestion - beyond possibly trying to recover some of it with the

> two tools I have mentioned - is to purchase a Seagate Replica and use

> it to backup your entire system from now on. You could also just get

> a large USB hard disk drive (1TB+ drives - 1000GB+ - can be had for

> $80-$150 U.S. pretty readily) and just keep a copy (keyword there -

> COPY - not the ONLY one, but a COPY) of your important files there.

> Include your pictures, music, emails, product keys/serial numbers,

> downloaded installation files, contacts, documents, spreadsheets,

> databases, Internet Favorites/Bookmarks, etc.

>

> --

> Shenan Stanley

> MS-MVP







--

--

Life is the only real counselor; wisdom unfiltered

through personal experience does not become a

part of the moral tissue.
 
In news:CB1B2497-F09B-415A-A994-28B0752B89A7@microsoft.com,

leelaa typed:

> Desperately need some help please. I have Windows XP Home Edition.

> The system was running very slowly and kept losing internet

> connection. I thought it may have some bugs. I purchased Norton which

> found and fixed several issues. Still kept losing connection and

> would not let me do a system restore.

> Then the mouse stopped working altogether. I assumed the system had

> crashed. On boot up I pressed F10 and followed the instructions to

> recover the system. However it has now reverted back to the day I got

> it and has lost all Photos, Music, Homework and other files.

> Is there any way I can restore these files????

>

> Regards

> Lee



You might get a fair number of them back with a file undeleter, but you'll

never get them all or even close to all.

Perhaps this is the kick in the pants you need to look into and implement a

good backup strategy for y our data. Wouldn't it be nice if you even just

had DVDs with copies of all those files on them? Or an external drive that

holds them all? With backups, in less than an hour usually you could have

all that data back in place.



Do some research on backup methods would be an excellent "next" task for

you. This sort of problem WILL happen again, eventually and sooner or later,

often sooner than later.



HTH,



Twayne



..
 
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